miracles and healing testimonies

Heart-Cry for Change founder Rachel Hickson knows for certain that God Works all things together for good. After all, she founded her ministry after she was hit by a seven-tonne army truck in Zimbabwe…

I had a baby of four months old at that time,” Rachel re-calls. “I was rushed to hospital and within 24 hours I was in critical condition. My legs were broken —one in five places and the other in three – but the critical aspect was damage to my brain stem due to a fat embolism from the broken bones. My parents came from the UK, wondering whether they would collect my body. My mother- in-law began arranging my funeral.”

In Harare, Zimbabwe, with her husband Gordon, serving alongside Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke, Rachel had been administering first aid in the road when she became a victim herself.

“Obviously, that had a massive impact on my life,” she says. ”There in Zimbabwe, that precious church that hadn’t known us very long just began to pray. They took Psalm 118 – ‘You shall not die but live’ — and they began to pray for me. A great heart cry started for my life to be preserved, and five days later I woke up and my brain was completely normal, so we thank God for that!”

Although Rachel woke up miraculously without brain damage, her legs weren’t healed.

”I went on a journey of four years learning from physiotherapists — or physio-‘terrorists’ as I used to call them. It was a long hard process of rehabilitation.

“But within that journey, this heart cry began to develop. God healed me. God

rescued me. I had seen the impact and power of prayer, both in the crusades

and very personally in my own life. I remember, something just triggered in me, and I said, ‘I’m going to pray like I watch and pray in Africa.’ But l just felt so unable to find my fluency and language.

”God spoke to me and said, ‘Rachel, don’t try to pray. First learn to love. Let me teach you how to love.’ That wheel-chair for four years really became a place where God began to slow me down and help me discover the joy of people.”

All in all, I t was nine years from that accident to the founding of Heart-cry for

Change, which celebrated 20 years of ministry last year.

“Often in my life I think I’ve discovered things by accident rather than design,” Rachel smiles. In this case, it might have been a serious road traffic accident, but it led to a pretty serious discovery. Rachel’s legs were completely healed when she was prayed for years later, but her experience helped her find a new purpose in life.

“God was healing the crippled, emotional areas in me,” she reflects.

“He put a heart cry for people in me. l had been known for being a little bit hard-headed, a science girl, had always done well and not needed a lot of help. Out of that place, without my understanding, God was healing me. For years, I’ve carried this heart cry that Jesus saves, Jesus heals and Jesus delivers.”

Rachel’s miraculous recovery is a wonderful story of God working all things together for good, but it is made more exciting by the impact it has had through the work it has inspired her to do.

“I help facilitate them to do what they feel called to do. I met Sharon Eason who had been out in Moldova, got overwhelmed and burnt out, and we’ve been on a journey for three years. Now, we’ve put together relational teams and I’ve introduced her to some of the amazing people I’ve had the privilege of getting to know over the last 30 years.”

Sharon has now joined the Love Moldova project and, with the support of Heart-cry for Change, is working with elderly women in ’Casa Helen’ — a care home they have built.

“Sharon is particularly working amongst older women who have gone through the hard, traumatic times of life,” Rachel explains. “Many of these women have been involved in slavery or sex trafficking in some ways. Now, due to ill health and disease, they’ve been abandoned and we’re gathering them up to make a home of safety, care, refuge and dignity. We’re also working with a young couple there looking at helping the youth, re-orientating their way of thinking.

“l had a young girl look at me and say, ’lf I stay at home, l’ll be abused. If l join the boys — the sex trafficking thing — I’ll be abused, but at least there’s a chance there that I might meet someone who loves me.’ We’re trying to put some value back into these precious people.” Raised by missionaries in India, Rachel was deeply touched by the plight of the lepers she encountered and now Heart-cry is making a difference to the lives of lepers also.

“I failed some of my exams to get into medical school, but God has opened doors and we have worked amongst the leprosy affected in the Bangalore area.

“We have projects there doing water purification and building wells. That’s more of a social justice side to the ministry.”

Inspired by her own time in a wheel-chair, Rachel is also hoping to begin some disability projects in Zimbabwe and South Africa in the coming years. “It will almost give back. Where they prayed for me in the Spirit I’d love to serve those with disability.”

A regular traveller, Rachel splits her year into thirds, spending time in North America, Britain and the rest of the world, speaking and releasing people. “I love infecting young people with a heavenly virus to know that God has put a mandate in them to do life well.

“I do a lot of training and a lot of counselling. I love helping people break the power of the enemy. It says in John 10:10 that the enemy has a purpose: his purpose is to kill, steal and destroy. But Jesus came to give you life — a rich satisfying life. My role is to teach and preach and get hold of people and put that God sound into them, and hopefully start a new resonance of hope.”

Though she trots the globe, Rachel has a real heart for the UK. She helped start the London Prayernet in 1997 and calls Oxford home when she’s not on a different continent.

“God hasn’t finished with Britain yet,” she claims, half steely resolve, half hopeful excitement. What I find in Britain is an army of extraordinary people willing to give their lives for others. I find that there is a hunger among people to encounter Jesus. People have a missional view not for ‘across the seas’ but across the street. I’ve got real hope for Britain.”